I don't think ownership should be worrying so hard about fans abandoning the ship if the team isn't competing for playoffs, but then again, it's not my money. Part of this also is impacted about when the new arena will actually open. If it's after two more years, then that's a pretty fair timeline to get some high picks, unload some guys who are pending UFAs either early or at the deadline--Mangiapane and Kuzmenko come to mind--and give Zary ice time in lots of different situations to continue to develop into what we all hope he can be.
I would try to resign Sharangovich, but if the price looks to high then there's another deadline asset. I'm not sure what to think about the goaltending. I think Markie's too valuable a trade chip to keep and it's no guarantee his game would be still at his current level when they want to be competitive. Vladar's a free agent after this year, so if they trade Markstrom, probably just add some journeyman who can keep the scores from getting too embarrassing.
Weegar's signed forever, and he and Andersson will be the D-core stalwarts next year--but there's going to have to be some base-level NHL bolstering that won't likely cause the point totals to rise too much. This could be done with some salary cap dumps from other teams that the Flames actually get paid to take.
What do you want to do with Kadri? Maybe the way he played last season makes him attractive to other teams without a sweetener, but maybe he's a good guy to keep around to help the younger forwards.
And Wilson's so very right about weaponizing cap space. We should be going into a bunch of drafts with a boatload of picks going forward.
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